Through the Leaves They Fall

Through the Leaves They Fall

Megan DeRouin

If the seven foot high chain-link fence covered in thorny vines as thick as a quarter didn’t dissuade you, then there were the signs. Spaced exactly ten feet apart and hung at a uniform height the NO TRESPASSING’s faded red letters were sure to drive the message home.

There were no cameras though, but that was just because when that fifty acre parcel of nothing but overgrown trees became off-limits they hadn’t been invented yet.

My family had lived in the town of Stony Brook since before it was even a town, there were more Reeds buried among the swampy graveyard rows than there were actual cattails. My grandmother once claimed to be related to the first man ever to have lived in Stony Brook, in fact she claimed that the shallow little stream that tumbled over a couple of rocks in the back forty of the family farm was the actual stony brook that the town was named after. This is course as with all small towns was a large point of contention for many years until there was an actual town meeting about it and it was decided that the stream that ran behind the school baseball field and general store was the official Stony Brook. My grandmother never attended another town meeting after that.

The reason that all mattered was that legend had it that the original Stony Brook had a pond at the end of it fed by a waterfall so clear that it was like glass. It is said that if you looked too long into that waterfall you would see your future. Let’s be honest here though, it would probably just be drowning from leaning over a pond to stare into a waterfall for too long.

Regardless, the Reed family farm’s stony brook was a ground fed spring that started deep in the woodlot and snaked its way downhill to the neighbors fifty acres. That’s right you guessed it, the little stream ran right under that chain-link fence never to be seen again. It is of course my grandmother’s belief that the government had heard of the waterfall’s power and had instantly seized it and cornered it off so that no one could use it.

I had told her that the owner of record would be free to access at the town hall, but she had said she was never going back to that place and she meant it. It was a good thing my dad was in charge of taxes now.

He’d told me that another of the town’s founding families used to live there and that the Hubbards used to be best friends with the Reeds until something went bad and when blood runs that thick between people it isn’t something you can overcome. Dad said that the Hubbards put up that fence and then disappeared. No one did know what happened to them really, and no one talked about them. At least in my house. Even my grandmother who had an opinion on everything stuck be her government story and wouldn’t say anything else. 

The place just gave me the creeps. There had been one time I’d thought I’d seen a ghost passing through the leaves. I blinked and she was gone, just like smoke. I could have sworn I heard her singing too.

I shook my head to clear it as I turned my back on the fence that was my only companion as I waited at the end of a dusty, sometimes muddy, dirt road that my family more or less owned, for the bus to show up. It was already ten minutes late and I was starting to think that I may have missed it.

Mom was going to be mad. She hated it when I missed the bus and she had to drive me the half-hour to school. I danced on my heels for a few more minutes while I chewed my lip and prayed for the bus to show up. The wind picked up and I pulled my sweatshirt up around my neck. Grandma said fall had come early this year. I believed her.

I turned around to start my walk of shame and my eyes passed over the gate to the Hubbard/government property. I froze misstep, my foot poised in the air.

The padlock was gone.

I licked my lips quickly as my eyes traced the line of rusty chain that lay heaped in the dust already starting to succumb to the fallen leaves’ burial.

Don’t do it Jake. Don’t you dare go over there.

I placed my hand on the gate lightly and it shivered for a moment before it swung open silently. I held my breath as an overgrown driveway opened before me.

It was like a fairy tale…like the ones where the hero steps through a doorway and suddenly finds himself in another world. I glanced back over my shoulder to see the gate was still there.

It was, the safety of that familiar dirt road just beyond it.

This was stupid, I mean what was I even doing here besides trespassing? I shouldn’t be here.

“Here to see the waterfall?” a voice floated in from behind me and I stifled the scream that rose to my throat as I swung my head back around.

She was just standing there. Her head cocked slightly to the side, her eyes wide and soft. Her hair hung like ebony silk down to her waist where the wind caught the ends and blew it into her mouth. She pushed it away gently, a small blush creeping onto her cheeks.

“I should go…” I said.

Her face seemed to fade for a moment before she smiled brilliantly, “You know Jake, it is a Reed’s right to see the infinity fall.”

“How do you…”

“Know your name?” she smiled again, she couldn’t be older than me. Just a kid rushing this year by to get a driver’s license next one. “I know a lot of things. Now do you want to see the waterfall?”

“That’s just a myth, some stupid legend,” I shook my head. Her smile slipped.

“No Jake. It isn’t,” she held out her hand and I felt compelled to walk forward towards her. Our hands collided, her skin was cold on mine.

“I don’t know your name,” I said as we started deeper down the driveway.

“No one has asked me that in a long time. It’s Ruby. Ruby Hubbard.”

“Hubbard as in…like the Hubbards?”

“Of course, we have lived on this property forever. It has been our sworn duty to protect the infinity fall, just as it is the Reed’s duty to protect Stony Brook.”

“This is not happening,” I muttered.

Ruby just chuckled, “We are almost there.”

I blinked and it was in front of me. The sound or perhaps lack of sound hit me first. The water in front of me cut through a large rock gouged in the top by the stream and landed silently into a small pond of water so clear I could have counted the pebbles on the bottom. The waterfall was about five feet tall and about half as wide, it was as legend said, a mirrored sheet of glass.

It should have made a sound.

I took a step forward and something crunched under my foot, but I was transfixed. It was unnerving how flawless the water was. How beautiful and infinite.

“What do you see Jake?” Ruby sounded eager, her voice jarred me.

I couldn’t look away. I could see myself, my sandy hair, and my sunburnt cheeks. I could see my slightly rumpled shirt and jeans with dirt on the cuff.

I could see myself driving a 2002 Chevy pickup, windows down, music blasting. I could see myself kissing a girl I had never met. I could see myself going off to college, the farm, a wedding, my grandma’s funeral, my mom’s funeral, my sister’s, my...

I tore my eyes away with a gasp. Ruby was standing beside me, her eyes unmoving as she stared straight ahead. I took hold of her shoulder and shook her.

“Ruby…Ruby.”

She refocused on me slowly, I could see the tears in her eyes. She reached up and traced her hand down the side of my face. “You have such a beautiful life waiting for you.”

“Ruby are you okay?”

Her lips rose into a sad smile, “No one has asked me that in a long time either.” I watched her eyes flick to the waterfall for a moment. I tried to do the same, but Ruby stopped me. “We should go.”

“Go, but…”

“Look around you Jake, look at the ground,” her voice was harsh suddenly as she yanked my hand downward.

Bile rose in my throat. I choked, my free hand rose to my neck.

There were bones.

Bones smaller than my fingers and larger than my legs, bones that belonged to animals and birds and humans. I had walked right over them.

My stomach heaved.

Ruby tugged my hand and I stumbled over the boneyard back towards the forest. I wanted to run. To be free of this place, but Ruby kept the pace slow. She paused in front of a couple of skulls.

“Do you know what happens when you live in the future Jake?” her eyes are startlingly green as they burned into mine. I just shook my head violently as I leaned away from her.

“You forget to live at all,” Ruby rocked the nearest skull back and forth with her toe. “Isn’t that right…Ruby?”

Every nerve in my body was screaming. I felt like I was on fire, the flames licking up my legs, warning me to run. To run as fast as I could, as far as I could.

Just run.

The look Ruby gave her skull was one of disgust. “You just couldn’t look away could you? None of you could. You wanted to watch it over and over again, endlessly watching and for what?” she turned her wide eyes on me. “But you did. You looked away.”

“I…I just didn’t want to see anymore.”

Ruby's eyes burned with an unidentifiable emotion, like she was fighting a war within herself. She blinked and her eyes settled, her decision made.

“Don’t forget Jake,” she sighed.

“Forget what?” I asked my eyes gravitating towards the skulls at my feet.

“Why you should never go into the woods.”

I looked up and her face was inches from mine. I could see the freckles that spattered across her nose.

She kissed me hard, I felt like all the air was leaving my body as my eyes slid closed.

BEEP. BEEP…BEEEEEP.

My body jerked as the school bus hissed in front of me.

“Hey kid you getting on or what?”

I reached my hand to feel my tingling lips as I turned my head slowly.

The gate was closed, the padlock in place.

I could hear the singing on the other side, “Through the leaves they fall, they fall…”

I got on the bus.